Blog Category

In October 2012, Jeff Rohrs and I started the content marketing team at the Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud with two people, a research series and a small blog. Under Jeff’s leadership over the course of the next year, we spent time investing heavily in content creation, working with the extremely talented interactive team on blog design, and transitioning into a global content publisher. We have since been added to the digital marketing team under Daniel Incandela and have grown exponentially under his leadership. We’ve been lucky because the majority of ideas have worked and our people are the best at what they do.

Here’s our hit list for 2012-2014:

•We now publish unique content on blogs in six countries.
•Our research series spans multiple countries and languages.
•We will hit 1,000,000 visits on the US blog in 2014 (up over 70% yoy).
•Video is published for six countries (four languages) on our YouTube site. We manage relationships in each geo with subscriber counts growing 300% over the past year.
•We have over 80 unique authors on the blog network.
•Smart CTAs that deliver specific deliverables to readers based on content tagging and geography.
•200% increase in lead growth from the blog over the past year.
•Influencing and contributing directly to millions of dollars in business for the company.

I honestly don’t know if there are any secrets to the success over the past year. I have definitely made plenty mistakes and my only redeeming factor is that I have a team that is more intelligent than I ever will be and a company that is comprised of the smartest people in the industry. Here’s the team – Bo Dietrick, Tom Corey, Heike Young, Tony Mulinaro, Drew Beechler, Jen Ribble, Chad White, Andrea Smith, Julie Easton, and Devon McGinnis.

So how did (do) we do it ?

1.Understand and speak to industry trends. We spend hours upon hours reading and analyzing content that deals directly with industry trends. From snapchat to Amazon Cart, we are constantly developing content around technology shifts that may effect the marketer of tomorrow. It also keeps us informed and helps with our professional careers.

2.People are paramount. Like I said above, people are everything. I have definitely made plenty of mistakes and without a patient and extremely intelligent team we wouldn’t be as successful as we are today. Hire the right people and invest constantly.

3.The translation process is extremely important to any global success. One thing we learned early on was the right translation partner is extremely important to scaling content globally. Errors within the translation process will screw up any timeline and will be extremely tiresome for any team to deal with… especially with non-english speaking locations.

4.Content should be personalized. The personalization of content is a trend that we have been moving toward ever since the inception of the team in 2012. Right now, we personalize CTAs based on what an individual is reading on the blog and their location. In the near future, we will be using Predictive Intelligence to personalize much more than just the CTA content on each individual page. As content marketers, we should use data to deliver a more personalized experience to any reader.

5.Analytics should be worshipped. We could always be better at this but the digital team at ExactTarget Marketing Cloud spends constant hours analyzing and testing content on all web properties. I believe that the success of our content is mostly due to our ability to analyze data and create great content. They go hand in hand.

6.Spend money on your content. My good friend Jay Baer puts it best, “Your marketing should be so good… people would pay for it.” Create content that drives consumption to the point where people would be willing to pay for it. Is your content that good? If it is, you should be spending money advertising your content. It should be read and shared… most of the time you need to market your marketing.

Ultimately, a great content marketing team is focused on delivering the best content for their customers and readers. If the content is not helping the individual move forward in life… you better move other because someone is about to take your place.

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LinkedIn means business – literally, it is a professional networking site that recently hit 200 million people as registered users in over 200 countries and territories. One of the purposes of LinkedIn is to allow users to maintain a list of contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship, but if all you are doing is accepting or requesting a connection, you are truly missing the boat when it comes to the power of LinkedIn.

In this two-part blog series, I will cover ten tips you can use as part of your LinkedIn strategy to help establish yourself as an expert and ultimately grow your business. Let’s start with these five:
1.Fill out your profile completely and keep it updated – you want those reviewing your profile to feel you are an active member on LinkedIn, and a completed and up-to-date profile will help earn that trust
2.Answer questions posted in your groups – show your expertise by giving advice and opinions, but beware, do not self-promote!
3.Ask questions in your groups – this will show others you are interested in what they think, and it gives you a good feel for what clients and prospects want and think – almost like an informal focus group
4.Share useful articles and resources that will be of interest to your clients and prospects – they can be your own articles or other experts in your field
5.Join industry-related groups and associations to increase online visibility – there are 200 million people on LinkedIn, so joining certain groups and associations can help you stand apart from the masses

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Sometimes, coming up with new content for your website, blog post or other marketing can be downright exhausting. As an outsourced marketing copywriter for my Indianapolis clients, I’m always trying to find ways to re-purpose existing content and marketing tactics in order to save my clients time and resources. So I put together 29 ways that you might reuse your existing marketing materials:

1.Turn an effective print ad campaign into a landing page or email blast.
2.Shorten your whitepaper into a blog post.
3.Turn a page of web content into a sales letter or brochure.
4.Use your blog posts for email marketing content.
5.Re-write customer testimonials into a longer case study or add them to your website.
6.Use social media to share your (old or new) blog posts and drive people to your website.
7.Recruit subscribers to your eNewsletter through your social media pages.
8.Recruit social media followers through your in-store display, sales letter or email.
9.Post your press release on your website or blog.
10.Send your blog post, whitepaper or case study to a publication for earned media coverage (PR).
11.Print out relevant blog posts or media coverage and send them to a prospect with a sales letter.
12.Gather your press releases, press coverage and blog posts into a media kit to post on your website or to send to reporters and editors. Use at trade shows as handouts for prospects and media.
13.Have your customer read their case study or testimonial in a video format to post on YouTube and your website.
14.Perform a customer survey and send any relevant results to your industry trade journal or to the local media.
15.Send a blog post or educational article to a local or trade media editor for inclusion as a column.
16.Print out a copy of your latest print ad campaign and use it as a flyer or handout at a trade show, golf outing or other event sponsorship.
17.Send flyers or offer letters with your billing statements to customers to remind them of additional products or services.
18.Re-run your radio advertising or customer testimonials as your on-hold message on your company’s office telephone line.
19.Post your television advertising on a company YouTube account and on your website.
20.Use social media to promote an upcoming trade show, open house, sponsorship or other event.
21.Package leftover promotional products and materials from trade shows or events and include them in prospect mailings or gift packages for clients and vendors.
22.Create a blog post about your company’s events over the past year, and document with photos and videos.
23.Write a blog post about your company’s most popular blogs or social media posts of the year.
24.License your blog content for others to use and promote on their websites or blogs (with permission and a link back to your site, of course).
25.Post a sales presentation PowerPoint slide on SlideShare and include on your social media pages.
26.Share a relevant blog post to a local or industry LinkedIn Group page.
27.Create a whitepaper or eBook out of blog content, surveys or old eNewsletter content. Offer it for downloading on your website in exchange for signing up for your newsletter or requesting information.
28.Convert a blog post into an audio or video file for your website.
29.Tape-record your speaking engagements and offer them (for sale or download) via your website.

These are just a few ideas for re-purposing content — off the top of my head. How many more could you add to this list?

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A couple weeks ago, we were having family movie night and rented We Bought a Zoo, a funny and poignant movie based on a true story. Many things made that movie great, but there was one line – “sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, just literally 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.”

As I reflected on this statement, I thought about my son getting the courage to ask the girl he liked to be his girlfriend and quit waiting for the perfect time – and yes, we forced him to ask her that following Monday after watching the movie. I also thought about my daughter, and how this little spitfire will make a definite impact on this world, but even she has moments of fright where she won’t let herself shine – so we will be working on that through theater because she is our super star.

And of course, I thought about myself – and how it was those 20 seconds every now and then that I have that unbelievable courage to do something extremely brave. I definitely have those moments, and when I reflect on those, many of them were life-changing for me.

According to my math (which let me tell you I’m no mathematician), there are 4320 20 second periods in one 24 hour period – and if we just took one of them every single day, that would be 364 times of doing something insane courageous. Wow, just think about it! What could we accomplish?

So, as I look forward to the second part of 2012, I will keep that line in mind and make some amazing strides in my life, both personally and professionally.

What about you? What is on your plate that will take some insane courage? And as the movie says, if we would just do it, something great will come of it.